Freight traffic declines again (Feb. 21, 2009)

The slump continued for U.S. railroad freight traffic during the week ended February 21, compared with traffic in 2008, the Association of American Railroads reports. U.S carload freight fell 14.2% from the comparable week in 2008, with declines of 12.8% in the West and 16.0% in the East.

U.S. intermodal volume slid 23.4% from the year-ago period, though AAR noted the weekly data ending Feb. 21 were affected by the Lunar New Year, which did not occur in 2008. Total volume of 29.6 billion ton-miles was down 13.2% from 2008 levels.

Canadian carload freight fell 13.7% during the week from the comparable week in 2008, while intermodal fell 15.7. Mexico’s two major railroads recorded a modest decline in carload freight of 1.3%, while intermodal slipped an equally modest 1.2%.

Combined North American rail volume for the first seven weeks of 2009 on 14 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican declined 16.2%, while combined intermodal traffic fell 14.3% from the comparable seven weeks of 2008.